As the world’s largest gathering of earth and space scientists, it is examined Washington At the venue last week, the packed halls were permeated with an air of anxiety and even novelty Donald Trump The presidency was expected to become worse than in a few years.
American Geophysical Union (AGU) Annual meeting It drew 31,000 attendees this year to discover the pursuit of new research on everything from seismology to climate science to heliospheric physics, alongside a variety of trade shows and a network of colliding scientists to advance their work.
As grad students and researchers buzzed around the needlepoint presentations in the cavernous exhibition space, however, one man dominated the conversation: Trump. The president-designate called the science of the sky a “giant scam” and asked when he was last in office eliminate US scientific funding and sidelined or even punishments Scientists thought the enemy was the chemical and fossil fuel industries.
The expectation is even more to be thrown away Trump administration cutting budgets and mass firing of the federal staff It gave the American scientific community a kind of collective shock. “We all feel like we have a target on our back,” said one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist, who added that agency staff are already looking to “wave” by replacing the mention of the climate crisis with more acceptable terms such as “air quality.”
“My God, it’s so sad,” another federal scientist said of the incoming administration. The doctoral candidate, when asked about stepping into Trump’s lab, simply sighed with puffed-out cheeks. “If someone offered me a departmental position right now, I’d jump at it,” said one Nasa researcher. “It’s difficult, especially for the younger ones. I hope we all survive. “
The challenges proposed by the initial administration are hardly mentioned in the official program of the AGU, which are focused more on the light of the new research – from the diro new. warning from the melting of the Arctic to leverage innovations artificial intelligence – and a general boosterism of the value of science to our lives. But the fact that the leadership of the government was recognized was repeated.
“Some of the signals coming out now are making people nervous about what will happen to their jobs, livelihoods, not to mention what their science is,” said Ben Zaitchik, a climate scientist. who will be appointed president of the AGU last year. “You say they are obsessed or obsessed, but many people do. At the same time, there is a time of transition. So we just don’t know each other. “
Trumpet – through his alteration hurricane maps with a Sharpie pen; cruel with eyes exposed to eclipses of the sun suggestion that disinfectant injections could cure Covid-19 – appear to many here as a catalyst for scientific contrarianism.
This is underlined by the nomination Robert F. Kennedywho organized conspiracy theories vaccine, favorite country and chemtrailsas the nominee of the new secretary of health of the US, as well as Trump’s I promise this week to reject regulatory approvals for “any person or company investing a BILLION DOLLARS OR MORE in the United States.”
But scholars in the US point to a broader face of the crisis beyond the next president, including misinformation and declining trust in the public profession among Americans. Overall, academic confidence has fallen by 10% since the pandemic; Pew poll showswith the increasing distance of the supporters, in what manner science is looked upon; nearly four in 10 Republicans now say they have little to no confidence that academics are doing the best they can in politics.
“When we get that kind of vote, it’s a real issue,” acknowledged Lisa Graumlich, a paleoclimatologist and current president of the AGU. Gone, it seems, are the days of the famous scientists of the nineteenth century, such as Charles Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt, or even the reception to the polio vaccine in the 1950s, which was greeted by the ringing of church bells, with its inventor, Jonas Salk. , he claims to be greeted with applause and cheers, when he appeared in public.
On the other hand, Anthony Fauci, the face of the US response to the Covid pandemic, calls for round-the-clock security protection. because of the perpetual threat of deathnot even after retirement Climate scientists and astrologers have too against threats harassment
“Conspiracy theories are out there, there’s a fallacy out there,” Graumlich said. “Social media tools and algorithms can trap people who aren’t necessarily prone to conspiracy thinking and end up down this rabbit hole of misinformation.”
Some researchers believe that scientists adapt to this hyper-partisan environment, clinging to irrelevant facts rather than anything that might seem militant. “We’ve come to be seen as just another lobbying group,” said Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist.
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“I want us to go back to where scientists are seen as organizers of events rather than debating policy. We must return to a situation where we have common facts.
Others want to press the case for science to guide decisions, except in the White House then with Congress, which has previously blocked Major Trump-requested cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA’s Earth science work.
Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at Arizona State University, who has been attending AGU meetings since 1989, attended this year’s event to reveal his alarming findings about the loss of fresh water around the world, due to the climate crisis and agricultural practices.
“People like me who are experts need to step in and say, ‘I think this should be done,'” said Famiglietti, who is close to Trump’s family and even switches to Fox News from the TV in his gym.
“I’m not saying that I’m tied to the well, but I’m going to confirm the right in Congress, in Washington, to know about it,” he said. “Some people want to jump the bridge if they think about the next few years, but I don’t think they need to get into a shell or be too careful. We have to choose our words well, know our audience, but I’m very much in favor of running ahead.
Even if he makes a trumpet followed by Florida’s lead by erasing all mention of the climate crisis within the federal government, he continues to obliviously warm the world, bringing defeats and rising costs to the Americans Physicists say they will still be there when they become politically correct again.
“We are sober about the future, but we are not scared,” says Graumlich. “Things are still done, science is still science. The battle is bigger than just one political cycle, I’ve been doing this for 40 years. We’re not backing down.”